It’s from the Christian Science Monitor, not exactly a right-wing or racist source.

Right, and the single person interviewed has no bias…

P6 has a rebuttal here.

Myth 1: The Whites-Only Tree. There has never been a “whites-only” tree at Jena High School.

Myth 2: Nooses a Signal to Black Students. An investigation by school officials, police, and an FBI agent revealed the true motivation behind the placing of two nooses in the tree the day after the assembly. According to the expulsion committee, the crudely constructed nooses were not aimed at black students. Instead, they were understood to be a prank by three white students aimed at their fellow white friends, members of the school rodeo team. (The students apparently got the idea from watching episodes of “Lonesome Dove.”) The committee further concluded that the three young teens had no knowledge that nooses symbolize the terrible legacy of the lynchings of countless blacks in American history.

Another myth concerns their punishment, which was not a three-day suspension, but rather nine days at an alternative facility followed by two weeks of in-school suspension, Saturday detentions, attendance at Discipline Court, and evaluation by licensed mental-health professionals. The students who hung the nooses have not publicly come forward to give their version of events.

Myth 4: DA’s Threat to Black Students. When District Attorney Reed Walters spoke to Jena High students at an assembly in September, he did not tell black students that he could make their life miserable with “the stroke of a pen.” Instead, according to Walters, “two or three girls, white girls, were chit-chatting on their cellphones or playing with their cellphones right in the middle of my dissertation. I got a little irritated at them and said, ‘Pay attention to me. I am right now having to deal with an aggravated rape case where I’ve got to decide whether the death penalty applies or not.’ I said, ‘Look, I can be your best friend or your worst enemy. With the stroke of a pen I can make your life miserable so I want you to call me before you do something stupid.’”

Mr. Walters had been called to the assembly by police, who had been at the school earlier that day dealing with some students who were causing disturbances. Teachers and students have confirmed Walters’s version of events.

Myth 5: The Fair Barn Party Incident. On Dec. 1, 2006, a private party – not an all-white party as reported – was held at the local community center called the Fair Barn. Robert Bailey Jr., soon to be one of the Jena 6, came to the party with others seeking admittance.

When they were denied entrance by the renter of the facility, a white male named Justin Sloan (not a Jena High student) at the party attacked Bailey and hit him in the face with his fist. This is reported in witness statements to police, including the victim, Robert Bailey, Jr.

Months later, Bailey contended he was hit in the head with a beer bottle and required stitches. No medical records show this ever occurred. Mr. Sloan was prosecuted for simple battery, which according to Louisiana law, is the proper charge for hitting someone with a fist.

Myth 7: The Schoolyard Fight. The event on Dec. 4, 2006 was consistently labeled a “schoolyard fight.” But witnesses described something much more horrific. Several black students, including those now known as the Jena 6, barricaded an exit to the school’s gym as they lay in wait for Justin Barker to exit. (It remains unclear why Mr. Barker was specifically targeted.)

When Barker tried to leave through another exit, court testimony indicates, he was hit from behind by Mychal Bell. Multiple witnesses confirmed that Barker was immediately knocked unconscious and lay on the floor defenseless as several other black students joined together to kick and stomp him, with most of the blows striking his head. Police speculate that the motivation for the attack was related to the racially charged fights that had occurred during the previous weekend.

Myth 8: The Attack Is Linked to the Nooses. Nowhere in any of the evidence, including statements by witnesses and defendants, is there any reference to the noose incident that occurred three months prior. This was confirmed by the United States attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, Donald Washington, on numerous occasions.

Myth 9: Mychal Bell’s All-White Jury. While it is true that Mychal Bell was convicted as an adult by an all-white jury in June (a conviction that was later overturned with his case sent to juvenile court), the jury selection process was completely legal and withstood an investigation by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. Court officials insist that several black residents were summoned for jury duty, but did not appear.

Note that the above is a selection from that web page, not the whole thing.

So, what’s going on here? Is this a case where people looking for racism (be they activists or the media) either neglected to do the proper research or ignored the facts in order to promote their narrative? What’s the real story here?

I’m not a regular — I’m a moderator. Substantiate your claim or get out.

What I was saying is that the issue of racism should only be tackled from both sides, otherwise it will continue to perpetuate.

Rediculous claim, eh? So, if I understand your logic, unless minority whites (that is, white’s living in predominantly black areas) experience exactly the same discrimination as minority blacks, then their experiences are void to you and not worth dealing with, in a minimum, at a contextual level? Unless that’s wrong, you’re just as racist as the whites in the above mentioned town.

Discrimination is discrimination, regardless of who perpetuates it against who, and is never justifiable. As a regular here, I’d expect you to at least understand that much.

No, I’m not going to quibble numbers, because ultimately it’s irrelevant to the broader discussion of our societies racial problems. It exists on both sides of the line, and without that acknowledgement, we might as well be talking about how evil Muslim’s are treating Jews in the middle east without a single word of how Jews pepetuate the exact same actions. Discussing what party perpetuates the most is akin to quibbling over who threw the first punch. It’s irrelevant, it’s the fact that the fight happened that we’re dealing with, and for their to be continuous animosity means that there is some level of hatred on both sides.

And for the record, I’d lock up all the kids who were involved in the connected incidents, white or black, to put an example that non of it will be tolerated.

But if you are from the area that’s roughly 70% Black and Latino and once had a jury pool that matched that, now you’re shuffled off to a jury of your peers that will be drawn from a jury pool that is about 20% Black and Latino.

The county prosecutor takes great pride in having the highest conviction rate in the state, but another county was breathing down his neck so he pushed for appropriate measures to keep his lead.

I’m leery of State Attorney Generals. In many states, the ties between them and county prosecutors is just too close but it should be a resource that is used in circumstances such as this one if that’s not the case.

True. The executive branch cannot hold trials. But if it’s like the U.S. Constitution and any other State Constitution I’m familiar with, it also provides for checks and balances, so that when one branch either fails to act or acts in a fashion so as to exceed it’s authority the other branches can act.

So, for example, I’d guess that the executive authority can act to investigate the judges involved to see if there is any reason for the legislature to impeach them. That would get their attention.

Certainly, the Governor hopes for and expects fairness.

Sitting around and hoping sounds like what she did when Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, too. WTF is up with this woman? Sounds like another politician who’s great at campaigning but lousy at actually doing something.

I also think that the AG should take a look at how jurors are selected in LaSalle Parish. Something stinks there. “It’s done by computer”? BFD. It was a person who wrote the program, and it was a person who decided how to select the data that the computer uses.

It might also be worthwhile for the State Board of Education to evaluate the local School Board and what they thought of their Superintendent’s actions in cutting off the suspensions of the students who hung those nooses, and why a “white tree” is permitted at the local high school.

Now, it’s not at all unusual for kids to self-segregate for a lot of reasons, race included, at schools. “Why do all the black kids sit together in the cafeteria?” has been brought up on this very blog. But having someone who decides to step into that space met with the reaction that occured and not doing anything about it is not a good way to run a school.

The question is, “What punishment should there be?”

I would have given him a few years, maybe 3 to 5, but definitely not 20. The kid ( isn’t he 18 years old now?) has several assault charges under his belt so I have no pity for him because he has been sitting in jail for 9 months where he belongs.

How does Mychal Bell’s lawyer call no witnesses? That is not adequate representation

Actually, it’s not unusual for defense lawyers, as a matter of strategy, to rest upon the conclusion of the prosecution’s case without calling any witnesses. Instead, they argue at closing that the state has not met its burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Whether it was a good move in this case is hard to tell without knowing what witnesses were available and what kind of impression they were likely to leave on the jury. Besides, if the defense doesn’t call any witnesses, the prosecution can’t call rebuttal witnesses.

If you were to tell me that Bell’s attorneys didn’t object to the case being heard in adult court instead of juvenile court, didn’t object to the racial composition of the panel from which the jury was chosen, didn’t cross-examine the witnesses presented by the prosecution, and made no closing argument, I would have serious doubts about whether Bell had received adequate representation. However, the mere fact that they didn’t call any witnesses does not automatically mean there was ineffective assistance of counsel.

Here is the response I got when I emailed Governor Blanco a while back:

Dear:

Your email to Governor Kathleen Blanco regarding the Jena Six case has been forwarded to me for a response.

Your input and concerns are vital as we make critical decisions to move this state forward. The Jena 6 case is a matter in the Judicial System and any defects must be addressed in that system with the appeals court. The State Constitution provides for three branches of state government - Legislative, Executive, and Judicial - and the Constitution prohibits anyone in one branch from exercising the powers of anyone in another branch. Certainly, the Governor hopes for and expects fairness.

Thank you for emailing and if this office can be of further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Sincerely,

Cheryl Shuffield, Director
Constituent Services

When I responded to this email asking if Louisiana actually had no rules for clemency or pardons, and if the state DOJ actually had no ability to investigate a racist parish DA, I got exactly the same email back in response.

Kathleen Blanco is a shameful excuse for a human being.

We see kids who have prior convictions or who have done bad things (like being involved in a group beating) get treated very harshly quite often-not saying it’s good (it isn’t) but it’s common. So thinking that all such sentences are “unjust” is, for many folks, more difficult to do.

We also see the system treat people with leniency when it feels they’re able to be rehabilitated or haven’t committed a gross harm. In fact, I’ve argued for that myself. So again, the treatment the white kids are getting isn’t itself unjust.

Finally, we often see vast sentence disparities. Hollywood stars who get drug sentences don’t do time; poor people who get caught with drugs go to jail. Paris was an exception. As a result, the mere fact of a sentence disparity isn’t (sadly) taht unusual either.

Obviously this IS unjust. But I have to admit that the spin doesn’t seem to be as effective as it could be. By focusing on result rather than process I fear we’re finding some folks inured to the complaint.

The argument is that the punishments for the white kids were too light (on three other occassions), and the punishments for the black kids were too heavy handed. Furthermore, had the school not shown so much indifference earlier many of these problems could have been avoided. (I think the principal was reasonable, but the people who overruled his recommendation were not.)

The problem is that the school board and the criminal justice system have let down this kids. How does Mychal Bell’s lawyer call no witnesses? That is not adequate representation. We already know the court unfairly tried Bell in an adult court, when he should have been tried as a juvenile.

There are numerous cases where the criminal justice system and the school board could have done better. This is the greater picture. Until whites and blacks are treated similarly in the justice system (and we could also argue a class angle here too), there will continue to be thousands of Jena’s all over the country.

Nobody is saying Bell should win the peacemaker of the year award. I think he probably needs some anger management, and I think he’s served more than enough time in jail by this point.

I know sometimes it’s kind of hard to feel bad for somebody who you think has done something wrong, but the question is not, “Should there be any punishment?” The question is, “What punishment should there be?”

PS- On a different but related note. Many people have ignored the fact that there are likely widely differing levels of involvement for each of the six young men accused, which hopefully will come out in a trial. So we can say hey Mychal Bell had previous legal problems, but that says absolutely nothing about the other young men involved in this case. They should be judged individually based on their participation and their records. Everybody seems to be forgetting this.

A) Prove it. Go to an open thread and provide me with sociologically accepted figures indicating that racial discrimination for whites in urban centers is exactly the same as discrimination against blacks in the rest of the damn country, and it better be parallel on every point. Otherwise back off your ridiculous claim.

B) Could this little side note be any more “what about the white people?”

The white kid that was beaten was only in the hospital for less than a day but he was knocked unconscious, kicked in the head, and left blinded in one eye for over a week.

Also, this was wasn’t a “fight,” as it is being reported. The white kid that was beated was punched in the head from behind and was ganged up on. One person being beaten without provocation isn’t exactly a fight. This particularly kid that was beaten had nothing to do with hanging the noose or any other racist actions against the black students. He just happened to be a white kid that was an easy target.

Mychal Bell was on probation for other assualt charges at the time of the beating. In fact, this was his the third time before the court on assault charges in a two-year span.

I think that the original sentence was excessive but I do believe that Mychel Bell needs some serious jail time or else the next person he beats up might end up dead instead of just temporarily blinded.

That said, this isn’t surprising. If you’re black, in a hick town, this is pretty standard. The reverse is also true in predominantly black urban centers for whites living there. It’s sad, that 40 years after the Civil Rights Movement, racial tensions still exist. Though half the problem lays at the hands of the leaders of the differing groups for continuing, rather than expelling, the anger and hatred.

I agree though, if the local government fails, the state should do something. But given the issues surrounding that state already, I’m not holding my breath.